Dr Andy H. Y. Ho is a multi-awards winning psychologist, social scientist, and educator who specializes in thanatology, gerontology, psychotherapy, digital health, and community empowerment. He is the Past President of the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC), Board Director of the prestigious International Work Group on Death, Dying, and Bereavement (IWGDDB), and Director of Research of the Palliative Care Centre for Excellence in Research and Education (PalC).

In over 20-years of full-time academia, Andy has successfully secured over SGD$30 million in competitive grants to conduct a multitude of empirical, translational, and participatory action research projects aimed at fostering active and compassionate citizenry. Since joining NTU in November 2014, he has been awarded, as Principal and Co-Principal Investigator, 25 major competitive research grants totaling SGD$15 million from the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health, National Medical Research Council, National Arts Council, Tote Board SG Enable, Temasek Foundation, and other prominent funding bodies.

Leading a large team of researchers, clinicians, and frontline healthcare professionals, Andy has successfully completed numerous projects for supporting and inspiring individuals, families and communities with the knowledge and skills to better cope with life adversities such as illness, mortality, loss, grief and bereavement, caregiving stress, social isolation, and poor mental health. He has also founded 13 acclaimed and innovative psycho-socio-spiritual interventions for health and mental health promotion. These include the Mindful-Compassion Art-based Therapy (MCAT) for burnout prevention and resilience building; Family Dignity Intervention (FDI) for advancing holistic palliative care; I Died Today (IDT) - An Intimate Encounter with Mortality for promoting death and grief literacy; Aspiration and Resilience Through Intergenerational Storytelling and Art-based Narratives (ARTISAN) for loneliness alleviation; the Well Feet (WF) Digital Application for the prevention and management of diabetic foot ulcers; and the Cardiovascular Disease National Collaborative Enterprise - Digital Personal Health Assistant (CADENCE D-PHA) for the promotion of medication adherence and healthy living, to name a few.

Based on this body of work, he has produced multiple public health campaigns and short film documentaries; authored over 150 top-tier journal articles, books, chapters and research reports, as well as presented more than 260 keynotes, plenary, and conference lectures, including TEDx Talk. Andy was the first Asian Recipient of the ‘ADEC Academic Educator Award’ in 2018, and was conferred the ‘Nanyang Education Award’ Award in 2019, the ‘Distinguished Alumni Award’ by the University of Hong Kong in 2020, the ‘ADEC Leadership Award’ in 2022, and the ‘Nanyang Research Award’ in 2023. Andy’s social and scholarly contributions are recognized with distinctions around the world.


Academic Qualification
2016 Doctor of Education (Lifelong Learning and Education), University of Nottingham.
2013 Doctor of Philosophy (Gerontology and Thanatology in Social Work), University of Hong Kong.
2006 Master of Social Sciences (Marriage and Family Therapy), University of Hong Kong.
2001 Post Graduate Diploma in Education (Guidance Studies), University of British Columbia.
2000 Bachelor of Arts (Psychology), University of British Columbia.